For centuries, cartographers deployed great effort to mapping the world. Since technological developments allow for us to zoom in close to map views, satellite views or even detail photos of the most distant corners anywhere in the world, a counter-trend seems to be on its way, especially for conflict-stricken areas: the political counter-atlas. No one knows where the situation in Syria will lead to, and how it will end. It also is a difficult matter to orient oneself in this multi-layered conflict. In order to break the discussion down, a popular means is to distinguish Syria’s borders and to say what it not is.
By throwing an unscientific glance on the often-quoted swarm intelligence, examined by means of English language Google results, we can state: silence prevails in the World Wide Web on the matter whether Syria could perhaps be Belgium, Switzerland, or Mali. While there seems to be a certain insecurity, whether Syria is Russia (8 results), a trend is observable: Syria neither is Libya (190.000 results), nor Iraq (71.300 results). Nor is it Egypt (90.800 results), though there still is discussion here, whether it could possibly turn into Tunisia one day. At present, 38.000 results stand against this assumption. 8.820 items confirm that Syria is not Afghanistan, of which we, in turn, know that it is not Switzerland, at the latest since Foreign Policy called to exercise this piece of wisdom in chorus in 2010.
Whilst many current publications are occupied with the question of possession of arms in civil populations in the US as well as in Syria, most results show that, nevertheless, the two countries are not mistaken for one another. Here, the view prevails that Syria is not “America’s … problem.”
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First published in German on Heinrich Von Arabien Blog on April 12, 2013
Translated from the German by Christine Kollmar